To overcome the poor room temperature formability and low corrosion resistance of Mg and its alloys, the CoFoMag Project is been executed in the frame of interdisciplinary topics that deal with the development of a low temperature formable Mg alloy, and with the development of a novel post-formable, self-lubricating and anti-corrosion powder coating system. Based on that, an innovative and lean processing line for the production of a lightweight system, i.e. a low temperature formable Mg alloy coated with the novel powder coating, is suggested for the fabrication of structural components. The application of a post-formable coating after sheet production enables the saving of processing steps (e.g. cleaning steps such as removal of temporary coatings used for forming operations), processing aids (e.g. lubricants, cleaning, pickling agents, water), energy and waste (e.g. contaminated water). Thus making the production chain line more sustainable.

This work provides an overview about the development of a Mg-Zn-RE-Y-Zr alloy that shows excellent ductility and formability low temperatures as low as 60 °C. So far, there are magnesium alloy systems, e.g. Mg-Zn-Ca and Mg-Zn-RE, which can compete with structural Al alloys in terms of strength and formability. However, the forming temperature, e.g. for deep drawing operations, used in those alloys should be higher than 120 °C to achieve suitable deep drawing depths. In addition to this, some results concerning tribological and forming behavior of the new lightweight material system will be given at the example of stretch forming and deep drawing cupping tests at room temperature and 60 °C. For the benchmark, the results are compared with those obtained using a commercially available AZ31 Mg alloy to show the potential of this novel lightweight structural system.